Popcorn Time, an open source Netflix-style torrent streaming application for Linux, Windows and Mac which is quite popular these days, was updated to version 0.3 beta recently, bringing some major improvements such as TV series support, new user interface, user settings, bookmarks and more.
The application allows users to stream movies (with subtitles) and TV series starting with the new 0.3 version, at no cost, and that may be illegal in your country so make sure you read the disclaimer before using Popcorn Time!
The most interesting new features in Popcorn Time 0.3 beta:
- TV Series support;
- brand new interface;
- user settings: set language, enable/disable subtitles for a language by default (along with the subtitle size), change the TV Show API, etc.;
- bookmarks;
- more codecs are supported;
- new languages;
- rebranded player;
- keyboard shortcuts;
- many other smaller features: watch trailer before playing a movie, display the download speed and number of peers, etc.
Also, the developers have done a "huge code refactory aiming to make Popcorn Time more modular" and of course, many bugs were fixed.
The playback issue with Popcorn Time on Ubuntu 32bit was fixed in this release. Also, the missing libudev.so.0 issue was fixed but it brought the reverse of that issue: those who are using libudev0 need to create a symbolic link to point to libudev1 (for instance, Ubuntu 12.04 is affected by this issue - for a work-around, see below).
Here are a few Popcorn TIme 0.3.0 screenshots:
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| Popcorn Time 0.3.0 - favorites |
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| Popcorn Time 0.3.0 - TV Shows |
Download Popcorn Time
Download Popcorn Time for Linux, Windows or Mac (to download the binaries, click the Popcorn Time website at the top of the GitHub page)
Ubuntu users: to use Popcorn time, extract the downloaded archive, then double click the "Popcorn-Time" file.
Update: if the video lags / is choppy, try to use the "--ignore-gpu-blacklist" command line flag, like this (assuming you've extracted Popcorn Time in your home folder):
~/Popcorn-Time/Popcorn-Time --ignore-gpu-blacklistUbuntu 12.04 users: Popcorn Time needs libudev1 to start - as a work-around, use the following command:
- 32bit:
sudo ln -s /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libudev.so.0 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libudev.so.1- 64bit:
sudo ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libudev.so.0 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libudev.so.1If you encounter bugs (chances are you will, since the latest release comes with some major new features), report them @ GitHub.
Update May 15: the script for building Popcorn Time from source in Ubuntu now works with the latest Popcorn Time 0.3.
Update May 15: the script for building Popcorn Time from source in Ubuntu now works with the latest Popcorn Time 0.3.